Would you buy a car without test driving it?

Comments

In 1995 I special ordered my Club Sport without driving one- mainly because Munich was building less than 400 of the little beasties. I had already driven a base 318ti and liked it, so I figured that adding an M Technic suspension and M Technic bodywork would only make the car better. Seventeen years later, I still love the car.Last month my wife bought a CPO 328i- again without a test drive. Both of us had driven several permutations of the E9x 3ers, so there was no need to waste everyone's time.Having said all that, there is NO WAY that I would buy a car that I had not driven in the configuration I was buying. One example:

I was a bit interested in a Lincoln LS V6 with a manual. They were extremely rare and there was no way to test drive a stick prior to purchase. I might not have liked the clutch take-up or the shift quality, but I'd be stuck with the thing(I guess I should count my lucky stars that I didn't get one, as Ford threw the LS under the bus and Lincoln began to specialize in building overpriced, tarted-up Fords).

First, I do my homework on the internet as to what I am interested in. When ever I purchase a new vehicle, I almost always rent that make and model for an overnight week-end day (the rates are very low on weekend days). This eliminates all the sales pitch nonsense (until you get to the Finance guy, who then tries to sell you everything from an extended warranty to a "lifetime wax job"!!! I have done this with my last three vehicles. I know someone will say "well that's expensive" but this way I get to really test drive the car and can put bookoo miles on it and get to really feel how it drives and feels. I am not an expensive car buyer, so almost always I can find what I am interested in at local rental agencies.

"Test drives are one of the most important parts of the new car buying process but studies show that many Americans are skipping them. Automotive marketing company DMEautomotive recently found that one third of shoppers test drive just one vehicle prior to purchase and 16 percent don’t test drive at all. Studies also show that the number of dealers a consumer visits prior to purchase has gone down substantially in the last several years."

Unless the dealership is going to let me have the car overnight with a 200-mile limit, I really only need 10 minutes in a car for a test drive. What's the point of 30-45 minutes vs 10? Either way you're not getting enough information about the car to know how you will feel about it for the next five years.
I do a quick check that I can get comfortable in the seat and take it a couple of miles down the freeway to check for ride and noise at those speeds and call it a day.

Now if I was ever going to spend serious money on a car, then I would figure out a way to get the car for an extended period, at least overnight. But for the under-$25K cars I typically buy, it's not worth the trouble.